September i, 1SS4.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



183 



annals of the application ot scientific chemistry to food pro- 

 ducts than that of the late Baron Justus von Liebig, and 

 we arc told Hint his son, Baron Herraaun von Liebig, is 

 following worthily in the footsteps of his father. So many, 

 however, have beeu the imitators of this illustrious chemist's 

 name, that tin' present Baron has found it necessary to give 

 special notice that, with the exception of the company at 

 present under notice, and the Liebig's Extract of Meat tym- 

 pany, which acquired the right to use the name of Liebig 

 from his father,' no other individual Ot linn has the right 

 to employ the name these two being the only articles which 

 were and are subject to his constant personal control. At 

 the Health Exhibition the company are showing samples 

 of their leguminous cocoa, malto-leguminous chocolate, ami 

 malto-leguminous flour, and, doubtless, our readers would 

 naturally like to know of what ingredients these specialties 

 are prepared. " This, however, is one of the few things," as 

 the chairman remarked at a recent meeting of the company, 

 " as to which it is not yet considered expedient that even 

 the shareholders themselves should be enlightened. The 

 preparation of malto-legumine is a strict secret, and even 

 the process of manufacture is said to be known by only 

 two or three persons in the United Kingdom, and these 

 are bound under heavy penalties not to disclose the secret." 

 It must suffice to say that it is claimed to be " a method 

 of preparing a leguminous product in such a manner as 

 to render it superior as an article of diet to any other food, 

 natural or artificial yet brought before the public; the 

 superiority of the digestibility of malto-legumine being 

 evidenced by the fact that 90 per cent, of it is easily assimi- 

 lated by the weakest stomach." All three preparations 

 have been before the public long enough to^icquire con- 

 siderable favour, and the list of testimonials which the 

 company possesses indubitably proves that each anil every 

 one of them is attaining a growing reputation as a light 

 and nutritious restorative, digestible alike by young and 

 old, and especially so in sickness, or in cases in which the 

 powers of the stomach may have been weakened or par- 

 tially destroyed. 



[Legumes are excellent as food, but we can scarcely ap- 

 prove of the attempt to pass off beans as a substitute for 

 cacao. Our readers are, of course, aware that "Revalenta 

 Arabica " is essentially flo'ur of lentils.— Ed. J 



Coconut for Tape-Wokm.— I)r. Martial i says, in An- 

 nates de Med. Navali, that this remedy has been k-Bown 

 to the Antilles since the time of the aborigines. The 

 nut is grated and eaten slowly by the patient. After 

 three hours a dose of eastor-oil is taken, and the worm 

 will pass away after five or six hours. — Cor. 



Indian Economic Products. — As we stated some time 

 ago, Dr. GeorgeWatt, of the Bengal Educational Depart- 

 ment, is engaged under the Revenue and Agricultural 

 Department of the Government of India in preparing a 

 dictionary of the economic products of this country. The 

 want of a comprehensive dictionary of useful products is 

 one indeed which has long been felt both by officials and 

 commercial men in India. The opportunity has there- 

 fore beeu taken by the Agricultural Department to 

 continue the work begun at Calcutta, and one of the 

 most useful results of the Exhibition may be anticip- 

 ated to be tho completion of the dictionary which Dr. 

 Watt has in band. A collection of products to cor- 

 respond with and illustrate the dictionary is simul- 

 taneously beingbrought together in the office at Calcutta, 

 under the general supervision of Dr. Watt, by Telok- 

 nalh Murkherji of tbe Agricultural Department. It 

 will be made, we understand, on a sufficiently large 

 scale to provide duplicate set^ for provincial museums 

 and foreign exhibitions. The dictionary, we are told, 

 will probably be completed within three or four 

 mouths, or within less than two years from the date 

 on which Dr. Watt commenced his duties ; and if this 

 promise is fulfilled, the result will be very creditable 

 to the author. The work is one which necessarily 

 entails considerable labour and scientific knowledge. 

 Dr. Watt has, however, been very cordially supported 

 by the superintendent of the Imperial Press at 

 Calcutta, who has already bestowed the utmost pains 



on the printing of the preliminary proofs, and has 

 given assistance, without which the early completion 

 of the dictionary would have been impossible. Tho 

 work will be published in three volumes, and is in- 

 tended to contain information obtainable about every 

 economic product available from every known source, 

 and to comprise also statistics of the production and 

 commercial movement of each product up to date. If 

 these intentions are carried out, the dictionary cannot 

 fail to be a work of much utility both in India 

 and abroad. — Pio7ieer. 



FABRICS from Wilei Plants.— Iu a shop window in 

 New York city i 8 displayed a variety of hanks of 

 thread, some coarse, some fine, some dark-coloured, 

 some light, some vari-colourcd. Some of the thread 

 ha,s the softness of the finest silk, some is rough and 

 raspiug as hemp. It is a curious assortment and at- 

 tracts the attention of many a passer-by. A visit to 

 the inside of the shop is a revelation of a coming 

 revolution in several agricultural products of this 

 country hitherto considerd useless. In a rear room, 

 about 16 feet by 20 feet, were three or four heavy, 

 but apparently simple, machines operated by a small 

 steam-engine. The room was half filled with many 

 kinds of weeds, weed-stems and leaves ; while in one 

 corner were seen barrels of crude asbestos. One machine 

 was beiug fed by a young man, whogaveto it bun. 

 die after bundle of the dry, brittle weeds, while another 

 was greedily devouring asbestos, crushing lumps weigh- 

 ing three or four pounds, and swallowing them with 

 a groau. The dry, trash-like stuff fed to the first 

 machine was converted in a short time into the coarse, 

 brown thread seen in the window, while the rough 

 atbestos quickly changed its mineral hardness, and 

 became a fibre as fine as silk, ready to be spun and 

 woven. The common citton stalk, which the planter 

 of the South pulls up and burns after the year's 

 picking, was made into a coarse thread, equal in 

 every respect to the jute of India, which the United 

 States buys to the extent of 6,000,000 dols. annually. 

 Flax straw, which grows in many States of the Union, 

 which is cultivated by hundreds of thousands of acres 

 for the seed alone, and is burned, or left to rot 

 in the fields, was converted into a fibre which made 

 an excellent and strong coarse linen, aud which, 

 when mixed with wool in the process of manufacture, 

 made an excellent substitute for cotton. Other plants, 

 of which the greater number were discovered to be 

 weeds of the commonest variety, were shown to con- 

 tain valuable fibre. Among them were bear grass, 

 Spanish bayonet (needle), okra, nettle, ramie, pita 

 baurbor, wild coffee, the cotton plaut, aud jute. Most 

 of these plants grow wild. Little or no attention 

 has beeu paid to their culture. From these various 

 fibres, many of which, by actual experiment, will 

 dye beautifully and perfectly, and without injury, 

 can be made bagging, mats, matting sacks' for grain, 

 rope, cordage, twine, packing thread, paper stock of 

 the finest quality, costly fabrics for wear, -substantial 

 fabrics for everyday use, and material for upholster- 

 ing purposes. From the fibrous mineral asbestos can 

 be made fireproof curtains and hangings for halls and 

 theatres, fireproof ropes, carpets and ground work 

 for oilcloths, and many other articlesa of luxury and 

 necessity. Ramie and Sisal hemp fibre may be mix- 

 ed with silk in manufacture, and common American 

 grasses are turned into fibre fine and strong enough 

 for wigs and false hair. Even the hard shell of the 

 coconut is discovered to contain a fibre wdiich closely 

 resembles hair. It will not "pack," and is equal to 

 curled hair for unholsterer's use. Indeed, there are 

 fow of our native products which do not contain 

 some quality of fibre, aud recent experiments have 

 demonstrated that tbe United States pays annually for 

 products which may bo made at home the lar«e sum 

 of 10,000,000 dols.— New York Tribum: 



